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29 Loy. L. Rev. 153 (1983)
The Coastal Wetlands Environmental Levy: An Analysis under the Commerce and Supremacy Clauses

handle is hein.journals/loyolr29 and id is 163 raw text is: THE COASTAL WETLANDS ENVIRONMENTAL LEVY: AN
ANALYSIS UNDER THE COMMERCE. AND SUPREMACY
CLAUSES
This comment addresses and analyzes the Coastal Wetlands
Environmental Levy (CWEL), a highly publicized but futile at-
tempt by the state of Louisiana to raise substantial revenues by
taxing the transportation of oil and gas through the state's coastal
wetlands.' Despite backing by Louisiana's Governor, Dave Treen,
and assurance by constitutional scholars of the measure's validity,2
the CWEL never left the House of Representatives for Senate con-
sideration.' However, the CWEL demands significant considera-
tion, first, because it represents Louisiana's second major defeat in
.recent years in its effort to enact major oil and gas tax legislation,
and second, because of the possibility that the measure will be re-
juvenated and given priority consideration by the state legislature
in the future.'
The CWEL followed on the heels of the 1978 Louisiana First
Use Tax of Natural Gas,' which was found unconstitutional by the
United States Supreme Court in Maryland v. Louisiana. Both
1. La. H.R. 1660, Reg. Sess. (1982) was to be codified at LA. REV. STAT. ANN. §§
47:661-667.
2. CWEL Tax Bill: Hearings on La. H.R. 1660 Before the House Ways and Means
Committee Reg. Sess. (1982). On June 1, 1982, Professor Richard Pierce of Tulane Law
School and Professor Walter Hellerstein of the University of Georgia School of Law assured
the House that constitutional problems which led to the defeat of the earlier First Use Tax
on Natural Gas were not present in the CWEL. The next day, after a total of more than five
hours of testimony, the House Ways and Means Committee voted 10 to 6 to report La. H.R.
1660 favorably.
3. 3 LA. H.R. OFFICIAL J., Reg. Sess. 1581 (1982). The House vote of 58 in favor and 45
against failed to reach the required two-thirds majority vote needed to send the measure to
the Senate.
4. See infra note 6 and accompanying text.
5. The Times Picayune/States Item, June 18, 1982, § 1, at 1, 4. Governor Treen indi-
cated that a special session may be called to reconsider revenue measures.
6. LA. REv. STAT. ANN. §§ 47:1301-1307 (West Supp. 1983). The tax was imposed upon
the first use within Louisiana of any natural gas which was not subject to a severance of
production tax imposed by Louisiana or any other state. The broad definition of taxable use
encompassed almost any type of connection the gas could have with Louisiana. See Heller-
stein, State Taxation in the Federal System: Perspectives on Louisiana's First Use Tax on
Natural Gas, 55 TUL. L. REV. 601 (1981); Comment, Louisiana's First-Use Tax: Does It
Violate the Commerce Clause? 53 TUL. L. REV. 1474 (1979).
7. 451 U.S. 725, 751, 760 (1981). The Court invalidated the tax on supremacy clause

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